Hollywood neighbors are rallying to combat foreclosure crisis

A Hollywood neighborhood is trying a new tactic to fight the blight of foreclosed homes: A community-wide party.

Lawn Acres, a 290-home neighborhood off Hollywood Boulevard, is sponsoring an open house Saturday to bring homeowners together in an effort to stave off more foreclosures in their community. Neighbors and their guests will walk door-to-door during the "Community Cruise" to see demonstrations — from interior decorating tips to yoga mini-classes.

Eleanor Leinen, who helped organize Saturday's event, said she and her neighbors worry about the impact of foreclosures, even though Lawn Acres is a stable community with many retirees and homeowners with steady jobs. Still, struggling homeowners don't generally talk openly about their difficulties so it's hard to know a home is facing foreclosure until "they just disappear," Leinen said.

"We don't know what is happening behind closed doors," she said.

A range of initiatives — from federally sponsored save-your-home fairs to loan-modification marathons to free counseling hotlines — already have occurred throughout South Florida. But those efforts have largely focused on helping individual homeowners avoid foreclosure.

This time, the event is for other victims of the region's foreclosure crisis: Neighbors who have to cope with the impact of empty foreclosed homes in their communities.

Lawn Acres has relied on a strong civic association and old-fashioned neighborliness to prevent about a half dozen empty foreclosed homes from causing community deterioration — from overgrown yards to squatters moving in to vandals and thieves attacking the empty houses.

"We have to be constantly vigilant,'' Leinen said. The idea behind Saturday's event, she said, is to rally the homeowners, so they will be motivated to maintain their properties, continue paying their mortgages and not let other properties fall to foreclosure.

Five years after the housing crisis hit South Florida, communities like Lawn Acres are circling the wagons to protect their neighborhood from damage, including plunging property values. Lawn Acres' ZIP code, 33023, has been one of the harder hit areas in Broward, with home values dropping 17 percent between February 2010 and February 2011, according to Zillow.com. Median home values in ZIP code 33023 were at $107,157.

Florida foreclosures have leveled off since 2009, but remain a problem for many South Florida communities, said Jay Brinkmann, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association. The Sunshine State has the nation's largest inventory of foreclosed homes, he said. As of August, 364,235 foreclosure cases still were in state courts, according to the Florida Supreme Court.

Wells Fargo chief economist Mark Vitner also warned this week about what he calls the "shadow inventory" of at-risk homes that may end up on the foreclosure block and could start another wave of repossessions that would engulf many South Florida neighborhoods.

In Broward and Palm Beach counties about a third of all homeowner mortgages are at least three months late, Vitner said. Many of these struggling homeowners are at least a year behind on their payments, he added.

"I pray every day that there is a turnaround,'' said Evelyn "Cookie" Santana, a member of Lawn Acre's Civic Association who is holding a Dominoes Café in her yard as part of Saturday's event.

For three years, she has been closely watching a foreclosed home across the street from her neatly kept home. If its grass gets too high, she calls Hollywood's Code Enforcement. She and other neighbors said the agency has done a good job of overseeing maintenance of foreclosed homes' lawns. If Santana see strangers pull into the driveway, she watches to see that they don't stay. A fellow homeowner chased off a suspected squatter who was spotted inside one empty foreclosed home, she added.

So far, the association has done a good job of keeping the tree-lined community safe and well-maintained despite the foreclosures, Leinen said.

"I love it here,'' said Cynthia Wood, a retired teacher who has lived in Lawn Acres for 44 years.

Jean Morford, president of the Lawn Acre's Civic Association, added: "It is a lovely neighborhood and we are working to keep it that way.''

The Saturday event is closed to the public, but those in the neighborhood are encouraged to bring friends to show them what a great community it is. Neighbors are volunteering to hold fitness classes, Thai cooking lessons, interior-decoration seminars and gift-wrapping sessions.

Where to get help

Struggling homeowners can go to hud.gov and get a list of free counselors to tell them what their options are, from loan modifications to short sales.

Homeowners also can go for foreclosure help to the Fannie Mae website, knowyouroptions.com, or call toll-free 866-989-6931.

The nonprofit Consumer Action group provides a free online foreclosure resource guide to help struggling homeowners at its website, consumer-action.org. Click on Housing Help: New foreclosure prevention resource.